Page 32 of Fierce-Zander

Betsy laughed. “Did he get you out of bed again?”

“Yep,” he said. “Got a call at midnight, then found myself sitting at a bar snapping pictures of his wife with some guy that wasn’t with her the last time I had to do this.”

“What do you think that is about?” Betsy asked.

“No clue. I couldn’t hear the whole conversation, but what I did hear was nothing that alluded toward a romantic relationship. They were talking about sports and some TV show, even the freaking weather.”

“Like a first date?” Betsy asked.

He wasn’t sure the last time he talked about that shit on a date with a woman. Not even a first one.

Hell, if he was being honest, he had a date last night.

All the elements were there.

Food. Privacy. Personal conversations.

None of it was about the weather or sports. Not even about work either, other than they shared the same wall in their offices.

Now that he knew that piece of information he might have a hard time concentrating.

Nah, he never had that problem before.

“If that is what one consists of, maybe. I didn’t get that vibe either. They were more like friends.”

Betsy’s head went back and forth. “And this isn’t the first time you’ve noticed this with her, right?”

“Yeah,” he said. It was the third time Justin had called him in the middle of the night to see where his wife was. The fact Tricia didn’t know there was a tracker on her car wasn’t his problem. It seemed odd to him since Justin admitted that his wife would often say where she was going, so it must be Justin wanted to verify it wasn’t a lie.

There was no violence in the relationship that he could see. Just a man that was with a woman way out of his league in looks and it was causing a lot of jealousy.

“Tricia has a full-time job,” Betsy said. “She is home most times with her husband, but a few times a month she goes out with friends or clients and that is what Justin has an issue with?”

“Seems it to me. I haven’t seen anything to show that she is cheating. In the beginning, I was following her a lot.”

Dead end work that paid a lot and bored the crap out of him to sit in his car and take pictures. But it paid the bills well and Justin seemed to have an endless amount of money.

“Who knows?” Betsy said. “But as long as he’s willing to keep paying you.”

“Yep. If it’s not me, it will be someone else. I wonder if he just likes the control for his own peace of mind, but that is theirrelationship. Justin said Tricia tells him she is going out for work meetings. He asks her all the time and she says they are clients. He has access to her work calendar; she’s shared it with him. I feel as if she’s not really keeping secrets from him by doing that and answering his questions. He’s almost relieved every single time I report back that it seems innocent enough. It’s like he needs that verification that his wife is telling him the truth.”

“Do you think he’s trying to catch her to get a divorce or trying to assure himself it’s not that so he doesn’t have to divorce her?” Betsy asked.

He played those words in his head. “Don’t know, don’t care. I’m not paid to figure out the emotional element or motivation in this situation. He might be concerned or jealous of her time with coworkers, but again, he’s talking to her and she is answering him on it. Since he knows where she is going and she’s there, she’s not being secretive.”

Betsy laughed. “You still didn’t tell me if you had a client meeting.”

“Why are you asking?” he asked.

“Because I walked in and it smelled like Chinese food. I saw the boxes in the fridge and it made sense but not so much that it still stunk. I opened the other office and that is where it was coming from. There were two dirty dishes and forks in there.”

Busted. “No client meeting,” he said, going to his office.

He’d let her stew on that some and she’d know enough to not pester him.

She’d probably think he picked some woman up for the night. He’d done it in the past.

Well, it’s not like he’d bring that person back here so no, not quite. Maybe earlier in his career he’d meet someone at the bar and they’d have a few drinks and go back to his place.

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